The Stitch Witch

A little knitting

Currently on the sticks: 

Consider this a "before" picture of Paton's Piroutte in Midnight Blue Shimmer. After following the directions to knit through every other hole, it's begun to resemble a wayward acrylic hairball. When I made the store sample, I through every hole and it the result was far more appealing.

Also on the sticks, Mountain Colors 4/8 Wool (colorway already forgotten though I think it might be Alpine. Dratted lost label.) on size 3 needlesWorsted weight socks are an ideal reintroduction back into the knitterly universe. Not to mention they're eminently practical for New England. And you know, the great thing about taking an extended hiatus from knitting is having a magical moment when I'm knitting along and I can suddenly smell the wool. Ahhhhhh, wool. The Paton's is shiny and shimmery and perfect for my 13 year old daughter (though I'm also tempted to make a scarf for myself in Twilight Sparkle) but it's completely scentless. Since it's mostly acrylic, that's probably a good thing but it's the yarn equivalent of an unscented tea rose- pretty, yet it's lacking something.

Or maybe I'm just a weirdo.

 
 

I drove home 5 inches into the first storm today-at 18 degrees, it was all poofy powder

Pretty for me and undoubtedly miserable for drivers on the other side of the jersey barrier.

Storm #2 is expected soon

 

The forecasters have finally learned to get to the point.

 And I've got a stack of new (to me) books, a decent tea stash, and Wednesday (aka, day 2 of the storm) off.  I might even finish a scarf to celebrate.

 

 

 

Why, yes, there is knitting, albeit the plain vanilla variety but it's knitting none the less This is the Malabrigos Rios I've been futzing with for a few months. One sign of an overly cluttered mind is flailing from pattern to pattern for such pretty wool. In the end, I settled on the plain and simple Corrugator (admittedly, the pattern name holds a great deal of appeal. The Corrugator? Awesome.)after it finally dawned on my dim little brain that the knitterly part of it prefers slip stitch patterns for handpainterly looking stuff. Viola. And the Rios is a warm squishy dream Much love there. (Ignore the screw up about three inches down on the left edge. I'm too lazy to fix it.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also on the sticks is Great Adirondack's chunky rayon chenille in Deep Blue Sea in a basic 3x3 ribbing.  It's currently a misshapen, Quasimodo-like mess that'll supposedly lurvely up with a little light felting. We shall see.

Scarf

December 7. Not quite holiday knitting panic time but close.

Blue Heron Bulky Rayon Chenille in Deep Blue Sea. This year, instead of frittering away precious knitting time on a pair of socks that won't be finished til Groundhog Day anyway, I've opted to get all the big and easy stuff out of the way first (translation: everyone's getting a scarf this winter).  The chenille's been languishing in my stash for several years- after one of the kids snatched the skein for a 'look at my bee-yoo-tee-ful blue hair' moment and left it gnarly mess, it ended up in the bottom of a bin, waiting for a cold and boring afternoon perfect for untangling wayward chenille. That was last week, when I finally took the time to discover that it looked like thrown up spaghetti (seriously, if the stuff hadn't been on the pricey side, it would've gone straight from the offending child's head into the trash bin) but was completely tangle free. Completely. So, 3? 4? years later, Karen's finally getting her scarf.  Good thing she never knew to expect one.

Socks and a rally

Columbus Day weekend. For we old school Italians, it's the official start of holiday baking. And knitting (Ok, in my family, the knitting thing might not be so old school) Meet Waterfall Ribs socks from Charlenes Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. DIC Smooshy colorway In Vino Veritas on 2.25mm bamboo dpns.  The pattern's easy enough to make these excellent waiting room, waiting in line, waiting for whatever knitting. In an effort to save time and declutter the knitting stash, I've resurrected several other socks in various stages of (in)completion and they'll appear in the blog as they make the mighty leap from 'UFO' to 'WIP'

A question: if you were going to DC for a few days, what would you consider a must see? Or is there a particular restaurant you'd recommend? My friend Linda called to say she's heading to DC at the end of the month for the Rally to Restore Sanity and, by the end of the conversation, going with her seemed like a brilliant idea.  We leave early on Thursday the 28th and I was promised a stop in NYC on the way down for the best dim sum ever.  Friday's museum & and eat our way around DC day and, on Saturday it's the Mall at noon and then a late afternoon drive home so I can get a reasonable amount of sleep before trick or treating with the kids on Sunday. We're staying with a (childless!) friend of Linda's while we're there so it's basically a matter of gas and food/museum money for this bit of silliness. Now, let's hope it doesn't rain.

So. Let's begin.

A week at home's given me plenty of time to think, dream, reconsider, hope, plan, and make a hot mess of some yarn. Repeatedly.  Malabrigo Rios -superwash, worsted, and super soft- was the unlucky victim this painkiller fogged week. It started as a pair of socks. Not just any socks, but possibly the softest superwash socks on the planet.  Better that halfway through the first sock , I started to reconsider. The LYS had recommended it when I mentioned knitting worsted socks (my slightly fogged reasoning being that worsted meant fewer stitches to frog). It was love at first sight-the colors are stunning (something my point and shoot Kodak was hard pressed to show on a cloudy afternoon). And it's squishy.  Squishy enough that socks for an active adult didn't seem like the brightest choice after all. (The pattern was 'Whitby' from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road.  Simple and very attractive but not for this wool) So I frogged them and started a Palindrome scarf on size threes, switching to fours after the first pattern repeat (that flare thing reversible cable scarves do at the ends drives me nuts). It was pretty enough but not rocking my world so back to the frog pond. Same thing happened with the next scarf. After an irritated dig through my pile of "someday" patterns- those patterns waiting for something NOT in the stash- waaaay down at the bottom was poor old Clapotois, knitted by every woman in the world, except me. (yes, it's the same yarn as in the first pic but the sun's out today. Beautiful stuff.) Anyway, I've got a follow up doc appointment later today and should have enough time in the waiting room to swatch it.

The great thing about having spent a few months wondering if the Big C was coming to mess up life was deciding why wait to find out? Why not upset the applecart? Some people might call this a midlife crisis; me, I think 'aggressively transitional' sounds better.  40(ish) seems to be the point were infallibility fails, big time. Mortality shows it's oogly face.  Apropos of nothing, and despite the fact that it's been 16 years since my last run, training for a 5K seems perfectly reasonable. (The lime green Chucks have absolutely NOTHING to do with running. Imagine the pain. They're reserved strictly for skateboarding with my 10 year old who enjoys telling people that his mom taught him to skateboard.) Yes, this is New England and there's a dearth of 5Ks from December until about April (except for the crazy people mountain runs) which is fine with me. The Couch to 5K program takes about 8 weeks but given the sorry state I'm in, extra training time is wise and very likely necessary.

Beyond running, what else? Since January, I've officially had sole financial responsibity for the kids (unofficially long before that and don't talk to me about child support. Had a support hearing 4 weeks ago and still waiting for the order. Since budget cuts have the courts backed up for months this could stretch on for a bit) and while we're managing, it's because we're living with my parents and pay roughly half of what we would if we lived in the real world. If I was contending with attorneys fees and 'real world' living expenses, we'd be living in hand me down refrigerator box. Oh boy. My parents intend to sell the house and retire in the South in the next few years. So things have to change, though it'll probably mean finding a secondary source of income. Having 4 kids in a depressed economy doesn't exactly compel me to shed the shackles of a day job and follow my dreams inot the sunset. Not yet, anyway.  We're a little too attached to having health insurance.  For the time being, I'm going to keep an open mind, do a few things I might never have considered before(all legal, of course) and see what evolves. 

And whoop it up a bit while I'm at it.

Where my damn hurricane?

While I'm whining, Typepad's tweaked things again. Of course, posting every two weeks doesn't exactly keep one up to date with changes, does it?  Anyway, where the hell is Earl? And what kind of a name is that for a hurricane? Were the hurricane people inspired by State o' Maine from The Hotel New Hampshire? Probably not.

There's been much going on. As I'm so fond of saying, that's a topic for another post. In the meantime, the first pair of winter socks is officially complete

Mountain Colors 4/8 in Mystic Lake, Charlene Schurch's Garter Rib pattern. Next to them, and now significantly further under way is Mountain Colors 4/8 in Wild Raspberry in Charlene Schurch's  Waffle Rib II.  It's been the sort of summer where knitting for sanity's sake is necessary and worsted weight yarn, with it's ingrained practicality, makes for sane socks. No foolishly complicated lace happening here, no thank you. Just ribbing and maybe an occasional cable or two and, eventually, some foot coziness.

Keep calm and carry on

Stress always helps the knitting mojo return....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Garter rib pattern from Charlene Schurch's Senasational Knitted Socks. Mountain Colors 4/8 wool in Mystic Lake on size 3s)

With any luck, in a few days, I'll have a hilarious story to share.  

Socks and sleep

In a fit of what can comfortably be deemed temporary insanity, I agreed to work at 3am Wednesday. That's 'be at work' as opposed to 'wake up for work' so there'll be no early morning writing, thinking or much of anything besides coffee drinking. LOTS of coffee.

Lauren's revised go away socks are coming along nicely or at least the first one is. Switched to DIK Smooshy Blue Lagoon and it's far cuter- pic's a little fuzzy thanks to my camera phone close up ineptitude. Pattern's really easy so they might actually make it onto the plane with her.

Goodnight. : )

Three day weekend

First, a future pair of Spring Forward socks in Alpaca Sox for an employee who'll soon be leaving for grad school in England.The wool's been lurking in the stash for over two years, waiting for someone whose favorite colors are blue, green, and purple.

Strawberry season started a week early this year and to celebrate, I'm experimenting with a gluten free strawberry rhubarb crisp tonight.  I'll blog about it later if I'm even remotely successful.

Lots of yard work planned for the weekend. For a variety of reasons, the usually gigantic Memorial Day planting that typically follow a spring full of tasty homegrown greens didn't happen this month. It's a little disappointing but there are enough small scale local growers that we'll still be able to have plenty of tasty produce. I'll probably start late June or early July with what would normally be the late summer/fall plantings and to make up for such a late start, the great cold frame experiment will finallly commence this year.